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Dinner for Breakfast

Par cooked brown rice. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don’t typically do leftovers. It’s not that I’m not a fan of cold pizza or Chinese food in the morning, but it’s that since being on this weight loss kick, I’ve been more careful about what I order when I order in, and that includes not ordering the above two cuisines – or at least not often – and ordering proper portions. The other night, though, I had dinner with a cousin, and we ordered Chinese (from Go Noodle on 1st Ave.). We had a mixed vegetable dish, as well as a tofu with eggplant, mushroom, and broccoli dish. And, because it’s silly not to, we ordered brown rice – in my opinion, one of the easiest way to healthify your takeout.

One of the things I love about my cousin is that she has a bizarrely bountiful supply of takeout brown rice stashed in her fridge. That, and an impressive collection of chopsticks and fortune cookies.

She sent me home with the leftover tofu and a small container of brown rice. While I had the tofu for lunch yesterday, I saved the brown rice for breakfast today.

I wish I had taken a picture, because my breakfast was de-licious, and relatively healthy. I took one medium non-stick pan, and sprayed it with a little cooking spray just to make sure the rice didn’t burn to the pan. I emptied the remaining brown rice (about 1 cup) to the pan over medium heat. To the rice, I added grape tomatoes, chopped orange pepper, and fresh baby spinach. For seasoning, I sprinkled in some fresh black pepper, garlic powder, and dried basil. In less than ten minutes, I had a nice brown rice breakfast, loaded with fresh vegetables. I topped it with some Brad’s Organic Fat-Free Tomato Sauce and a little bit of mozzarella. Weight Watchers-friendly, and wicked easy (yeah, I just said that).

People are crazy about breakfast for dinner . . . but what about dinner for breakfast? What’s your favorite way to re-purpose leftovers?